georgiajune / TripAdvisor

As soon as I went underground into the world of Banya No.1, I was living a fantasy of old-world opulence combined with bracing rustic pleasure/pain. The pain comes from the hot hot hot steam room, the cold cold cold ice buckets and plunge pools and the beating you sign up for if you get the parenie treatment (which you should). Masochistic, maybe, but oh how good my skin and brain felt afterwards! I felt my cares leave my body as it tingled with new sensations. It was an experience I will never forget.